


Making a Faerie Crown.

by RedStarFiction



Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2015-10-27
Packaged: 2018-04-28 12:09:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5090174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedStarFiction/pseuds/RedStarFiction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*Spoiler for those not read Written In My Own Hearts Blood*</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making a Faerie Crown.

**Author's Note:**

> Just an imagined conversation between Jamie and Jenny post - WIMOHB.

Jenny sighed as she stretched her legs out in front of her on the grass. The sun was warm on her skin in a way that Scotland had never been during the autumn months and with the younger lassie’s shouldering more and more of the work nowadays, she found she had more time to enjoy such things.  
She ran her fingers through the grass and considered making a daisy chain for wee Mandy. She hadn’t made one of those since her youngest daughter was a bairn. Jenny felt the familiar stab of sorrow in her chest at the thought of the children and grandchildren she had left behind in Scotland but pushed it aside.  
She had Ian here and Jamie and his family too, she was lucky she told herself firmly and shifted toward the daisy patch. As her fingers found the familiar pattern of work she allowed her mind to wander. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t hear her brother approaching.  
“That looks set to be a bonnie wee crown.”  
Jamie smiled down at her as Jenny swung round, one hand clutched to her chest.  
“Och! Jamie! Ye gave me a start! Aye, a faerie crown for Mandy ken? My girls used to like them.”  
“Double layered too? Verra nice.”  
Jamie sat down next to her, grunting as his back creaked.  
“If ye get down, will ye get back up?”  
Jenny asked, alarmed at the thought of trying to heave her huge brother to his feet.  
“Of course I will!”  
Jamie said, mildly affronted by the question. He reached for the end of the chain.  
“Here, let me hold the end for ye.”  
Jenny pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow at him  
“The last time ye offered to hold a daisy chain for me, ye picked all the petals off and blew them in my face.”  
Jamie looked momentarily confused and then let out a bark of a laugh at the memory  
“I did! How old were we? Six and eight? ”  
“Aye and had ye not out-run me, ye’d ha’ no’ seen seven.”  
Jenny sniffed, her face softening into a smile  
“Ye chased me half way around the house wi’ a stick.”  
Jamie chuckled and Jenny’s smiled broadened  
“I did, and Mam had to bribe me into the kitchen wi’ a honeyed bannock and a promise to skelp ye herself if ye did such a thing again.”  
Jamie nodded  
“She had a canny way wi’ us for sure. Offer us food and we’d be pliant as lambs for at least an hour.”  
Jenny reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze.  
“She’d be sae proud of ye Jamie.”  
Jamie snorted and shook his head  
“No a leannan, she would be dismayed by the way her son chose to live his life but you … Jenny, she would ha’ swelled wi’ pride at the person ye are.”  
Jenny frowned at him  
“Ye canna believe that surely? About the way ye lived? Ye did your best Jamie, ye provided for ye family and have saved more lives than ye’ve taken. She’d understand about the rest.”  
The certainty in Jenny’s voice lit a small spark of warmth in Jamie’s chest and he nodded  
“I would like to hope so but …”  
He spread his hands, taking in the sorry state of them.  
“I dinna ken for sure.”  
“I do.”  
Jenny said simply and returned to her chain. They sat in silence for a few moments and the Jamie cleared his throat.  
“Are ye happy here Jenny?”  
“I am, it’s no’ home yet, but I’ve enough family to love and that itself is a blessing.”  
Jamie stared straight ahead, squinting into the sun.  
“If ye should ever wish to go back to Scotland, I will make it happen.”  
“Dinna be daft. It’s far too great an expense! An old widow woman has nay need o’ passages to and fro across the world. I’ll bide here. Besides, wee Ian and Rachel are like to ha’ another bairn soon and I’m glad to be here to help.”  
Jamie flinched slightly  
“I ken ye blame me for Ian being here…”  
Jenny made an impatient sound at the back of her throat.  
“Ian was a dedicated wanderer as soon as he could crawl. He would ne’er ha’ been content to stay his years at Lallybroch.”   
“Maybe, but I ken I didna help the matter.”  
“No, ye didna help but ye kept him safe and he found a good wife here…”  
Jenny gestured with a daisy something that Jamie took to mean ‘It is how it is.’  
“We both have a few wee bundles of guilt to carry mo bràthair.”  
Jamie turned and looked at her, his eyebrows rising in surprise.  
“What guilt do ye carry for me? I canna think of any that ye should …”  
“Laoghaire.”  
Jenny interrupted bluntly, and then promptly closed her mouth, lips compressed as if speaking the name aloud had left a sour taste in her mouth.  
“No one held a gun to my head Jenny. I chose to wed her.”  
Jamie said cautiously, it had been years since he had spoken of his second wife and he wasn’t sure it was a topic he particularly wanted to delve into now.  
“True, but I pushed and prodded ye into it and … I was wrong.”  
Jenny’s eyes flashed dangerously at her brother as if daring him to challenge her.  
“Ye did what ye thought was best, as did I.”  
“I wanted ye to forget Claire and find happiness again.”  
“I ken that, why bring it up now?”  
“It weighs on me Jamie. Seeing you and Claire together now…”  
Jenny trailed off, shaking her head.  
“I failed ye Jamie, that’s the truth of it.”  
Jamie planted a kiss on his sister’s head   
“Ye have never failed me Janet Murray. Never.”  
He said firmly. Two identical sets of blue eyes met and held steady.  
“The past is done lass, I dinna bear a grudge about any of it, not against ye.”  
Jamie said and Jenny made another noise at the back of her throat  
“Maybe no’ but Claire does.”  
Jamie drew a breath through his nose and closed his eyes. He didn’t know if that was wholly true and suspected that Claire would never admit it if it was, but there was likely a fair degree of truth about it for Jenny to comment.  
“I dinna ken, but if she does it doesna change the love she holds for ye.”  
Jenny snorted, sounding so like their father it made Jamie laugh  
“What?”  
“Ye sounded like Da.”  
“Ian used to say that too.”  
Jenny smiled a slightly sad smile and Jamie put an arm around her.  
“Ian would ha’ loved ye had ye sounded like Murtagh. He adored ye.”  
“Och I ken that.”  
Jenny sighed and leant her head on Jamie’s shoulder.  
"I wondered, when he got ill and Claire couldna save him, if she was maybe punishing me..."  
"Claire would never..."  
Jamie began but Jenny waved away his protest  
"I ken that now but I understand the rage she would ha' felt, knowing I'd help ye re-marry. She loves ye verra much and it must have hurt her terribly, I'm sorry for it."  
Jenny sighed.  
“We were lucky, ye and I, we both found our soulmates. Some people ne’er do.”  
“Aye, that’s true.”  
Jamie smiled thinking of Claire and the love they had shared for nearly half a century.  
“I meant what I said Jenny, Claire holds a lot of affection for ye, dinna fash about that.”  
“Weel I do for her too. She makes ye happy an’ that would be enough; but she’s a good woman too. Strong.”  
Jenny nodded and Jamie fought back a grin at the clipped tones she used to deliver such praise.  
“Aye, she is at that.”  
“Brianna too. She’s a fine mix o’ the pair o’ ye.”  
Jenny looked shrewdly at her brother watching him glow with pride at the mention of his daughter.  
“She is.”   
He agreed nodding.   
“Do ye think she and Roger are soulmates?”  
Jamie pursed his lips.  
“I hope so, in truth I dinna ken. It’s the sort of thing only the souls involved can truly ken, aye? But he loves her and the bairns, treats her well and I dinna think he would hesitate to die for her. That’s enough maybe?”  
“I think they’re soulmates.”  
Jenny said softly, finishing the daisy chain and laying it carefully beside her.  
“I will tell ye something now Jamie, something I havena told anyone else here…”  
She took a deep breath and folded her hands into her lap.  
“I met Roger, a long time ago as a lass of maybe sixteen. I thought my eyes were playing tricks when I first saw him wi’ your Brianna, but when he looked at me, I saw it in his eyes.”  
Jenny could feel Jamie’s eyes burning into her and sensed the unnatural stillness that settled over his body as she spoke.  
“I had ne’er really believed what ye told me of Claire. I didna think her a witch exactly, but I didna believe she was an auld one. Then I saw Roger wi’ Brianna, he’s not aged since I last saw him o’er forty years ago, the same coat even, and I ken then that it was all true.”  
She broke off chuckling to herself   
“I was a wee bit fashed at first, wonderin’ why two generations o’ our family in a row were chosen, but then I came to see that it didna matter. Your Bree is a happy, healthy lass and Jemmy and wee Mandy are the same; what does it matter if they’re half-auld ones?”  
Jamie had not spoken a word since Jenny’s revelation but as the silence stretched out he cleared his throat.  
“Roger Mac told me about it. I didna mention it because I didna ken if ye’d remember and if ye didn’t … weel it takes some adjusting to aye?”   
Jenny nodded thoughtfully  
“Aye sae it does but…”  
She stood up with surprising agility for a woman of her years, gently lifting the faerie crown.  
“Je suis prest, brother. Fraser’s are made o’ stern stuff.”  
Jamie smiled and stood, linking his arm through hers as they walked towards the sound of children’s voices nearby.  
“That we are.”


End file.
